How far is a Swindon Central Library enquiry officer prepared to go to answer a question? Well I can tell you a very long way indeed - upstairs and beyond, in fact.

I recently wrote a Remember When article quoting from an intriguing document entitled a Statement of tombstones and monuments standing and being in the Burial Ground of the Church of Holyrood, Swindon Wilts.

One of my favourite inscriptions was the one found on the Coate family memorial.

“Blush not O tomb to risque from oblivion the horrible memory of Roger Coate who by the blessed order of divine providence first drew air on Wednesday January 31 1767 and carefully laboured under the different toils and troubles of life until Monday March 31 1823.”

I wonder if poor old Roger, whose life was summed up pretty much in a nutshell, really was that horrible.

Probably compiled by a local government officer at the time Swindon Borough purchased The Lawn and neighbouring Holy Rood chancel in the early 1950s, the document was a record of some 300 surviving gravestone inscriptions dating back to the 17th century.

I did my original research more than a year ago and noted the title and the library reference, which I duly quoted.

Apparently this article prompted some interest and several phone calls to the Local Studies helpdesk for further information. But could this document be found?

Dawn contacted me for clarification. Was it a pamphlet or a book, was it a bird, was it a plane? I racked my brains to try and recall how deep and crisp and even the book might have been. After the third frustrated email from Dawn I wasn’t even convinced there was a book anymore. Perhaps it was a mirage, a figment of my imagination.

Just as I was close to admitting, yes, ok, I made it all up, Dawn located the missing item. Removed during a library spring clean, it was neatly filed upstairs in the new Central Library building.

Never under estimate the tenacity of a Swindon Central Library enquiry officer.

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here